


Company Loves Misery

by orphan_account



Series: What Might Come from This [2]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies), Young Avengers
Genre: Daddy Loki, Established Relationship, Fem!Tony, Fluff and Angst, Growing Up, M/M, Mpreg, Mutant!Tony, Parenthood, X-Gene, but only kinda mpgreg? cuz tony sometimes is a girl, mommy Tony, so there's also
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-05-23
Updated: 2016-09-28
Packaged: 2018-01-26 05:59:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1677347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is the story of Tony and Loki as parents, starting with the decision to have a baby and continuing through pregnancy, birth, childhood, adolescence and early adulthood of their child. It’s not easy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Preface

Tony was just so, so very tired. It felt like there had never, in his whole life, been a time when he could feel safe and happy. He hadn’t been happy as a child, neither as a teenager, and even less as an adult. People might have _assumed_ he was, because he was rich and a genius, born at the top of the world. The way he held himself and presented himself to the world might have suggested that he was living life with the carelessness of the content. But inside … Inside it looked different.

His childhood had been lonely, because he could talk and write like the adults early on. Older kids literally looked down on him (it’s why he still hates how short he is), and kids his age were boring and dull to him. So he started to build things to keep him company. Started to talk to them. Started to isolate himself into the confines of his own reality. Only Obie and Jarvis ever got to him, but then Jarvis … went away. Tony didn’t know why everyone told him Jarvis went away, when he knew exactly that he died from a pulmonary edema. So how could he go away? It made him think about death and religion and philosophy for weeks without end.

His illusionary peace ended completely, when he began his studies at MIT. Again the youngest and brightest, he developed different strategies, instead of merely contenting himself with the perfect little island of thoughts, and that gained him the attention and admiration of dozens, hundreds of classmates. He started drinking, partying, sleeping with girls and doing drugs. They were enough to, sometimes, slow his brain down enough to finally be on a level with ‘normal’ people. He’d found an off-switch. In retrospective, he had been at his happiest then, blissfully ignorant as only youths can be. Of course, that time ended. In his case twice.

It ended once, with the death of his parents. The emptiness where Maria Stark once sat for herself, singing, painting or smoking. The silence where Howard Stark once tinkered in his lab. The numbness of Tony thinking he should miss them more. The hollowing of Obie’s voice when he announced him CEO of Stark Industries.

It ended a second time, when he – just for shits and giggles – performed an X-gene mutant test in his lab at one of his parties. He was dead drunk, so when he tested positive, he just repeated it. Again. And again. The next day he almost overdosed on drugs, alcohol and pills and ended up in a hospital, where a certain Charles Xavier visited him and told him about what being a mutant meant. He offered him a place at his school, if he wanted. Tony declined, but Xavier still wanted to keep tabs on him and perhaps find out what his powers were. For the time being Obie paid everyone who had been present – and still conscious – at the party enough money to keep the secret.

For two years nothing happened. No super-powers, no weird abilities. After the initial shock Tony was almost disappointed. But then, at another one of his parties, he hooked up with a guy and had drunk sex. When he woke up the next day, he was a woman.

Xavier called his ability _gendershifting_ , with a possible hint of something he described as an ‘aura of fertility’ and maybe some longevity thrown into the mix. He could shift from male to female, but also to any stages in between. He could grow boobs and still have a dick. He could have a dick and a vagina. He could have the round hips and slender legs of a woman and the muscular arms and shoulders of a man working manual labor like he did. He could shift his body to a completely genderless form. At first it was difficult to shift, because Tony had never really appreciated or especially liked how his body felt, except maybe during sex (which was probably why he shifted for the first time after a good, thorough pounding). His mind was what made him who he was, and it made focusing on how his body felt difficult. It made _accepting_ it difficult. Because shifting was only possible if one felt at home in the intended form. And how could he feel safe and _right_ , when people hated mutants, didn’t value women the same as men, worse even those _between_ male and female?

With the years, Tony buried his ability to gendershift and stayed in his purely male form for months, even years without interruption, only sleeping with women, never with men, even though he sometimes felt like it. And then Afghanistan happened. His whole world view shifted, not just because of the sudden, ice cold revelation of the consequences his actions entailed. He was responsible. The death of so many innocent people was his fault. And with the same rational, sharp suddenness he realized how much he wanted to _live_. He didn’t want to dance to another man’s tune anymore. He didn’t want to hide his mutant X-gene anymore, his gendershifting, because it was a _part_ of him. He realized that he was a person, and not just an image, an idol, a name, a face or a title. He was Tony fucking Stark, and he wanted to live.

While he was building Iron Man, he never intended for it to be another weapon. The mask wasn’t intended to hide. It was just a means to an end. It would bring him and Yinsen out of his shithole. It would take him home, and that was all it was intended to do.

But Yinsen died and Rhodey brought him home, Obie was there, Pepper smiled and cried and Happy hugged him when he got home, and everything was _wrong_.

At that press conference he shut down the weapons manufacturing part of Stark Industries and revealed that he was a mutant by shifting into his female form. The shitstorm following that shouldn’t have felt that satisfying, but it did. It felt good to be himself, to finally do something he believed in. But he still wasn’t happy. He felt good, he felt relieved, but he was tired. Not just physically exhausted, there was something else missing, and not even the pressure of the arc reactor in his chest or the clamping sensation of the Iron Man suit closing in around him could make it go away. Obie’s betrayal and death only worsened it; they forced him to decide, between becoming Iron Man and staying the Tony Stark everyone believed to know. Not even Pepper – who became more than just his assistant, but his trusted friend, partner-in-crime, and eventually even lover – could help him.

When he was dying of palladium poisoning, he thought that was it. While trying to spare Pepper, Rhodey, and Happy the pain of losing a friend, he struggled to keep the ground under his feet. Crazy maniacs trying to kill him and Justin Hammer’s stupid dick measuring contest didn’t help either. But Tony wouldn’t be Tony if he didn’t find a solution to everything, in passing creating a new, synthetic element, saving everyone’s lives – though he still felt empty.

Being a genius and all, it was only on rare occasions when he didn’t have to slow his brain down or keep on his mask of arrogant flippancy. After being called in on the Avengers Initiative, meeting Bruce Banner was exciting, not only because of the Hulk always lingered beneath his skin, but because this was another scientist, another genius. This was someone who spoke his language. Science bros 5-eva. Even after the New York mess they kept in contact. It was a vent, a relief, a running track, like tea-time or driving a sports car. At the same time exhilarating and alleviating.

Portals, the Tesseract, Chitauri, world domination, whatever, in retrospective none of it actually mattered. However, there was one more thing that stuck with Tony. He continued to suffer from nightmares after his involuntary trip into space, a nuclear bomb on his back. The complete darkness, the silence, the _endlessness_ … Though whenever he dreamed of floating through that nothingness again – he still couldn’t overcome himself and watch _Gravity_ , despite George Clooney having sent him an invitation for the premiere – there were flickers of something else that he began to associate with the vast unknown waiting just beyond the boundaries of Earth’s atmosphere. Maybe it was his scientific curiosity. Maybe it was an innate, human longing. After the business with Aldrich Killian and Extremis he felt more grounded. He felt ready to look further, to accept that there was more. Possibilities, wonders, and yes, monsters and threats too.

Unsurprisingly – it should have been surprising, but after all that happened it really wasn’t – that was when something fell from the skies, something green and black and gold; something sharp and broken; something curious and beautiful. In retrospective, Tony would say that this was when he started to feel complete.

Of course, nothing was easy, not with Tony involved. And what developed between him and Loki was definitely involvement. At first he didn’t even notice how close they had become. It had been as simple arrangement at first. An exchange. I scratch your back, you scratch mine. But then the Avengers found out and it became painful. Because everyone disapproved. Because Pepper stood against him, and the Avengers distrusted him. Because S.H.I.E.L.D. wanted to imprison Loki, when he finally came back from hiding, to perform tests on him, which in Tony’s mind were simply torture. Then it was maddening. The sex, the fights, the enthusiastic magic-science-mix-talks, the understanding, the comfortable silences. Too much, yet still not enough; it confused him and it made him lose sleep and weight, because in the end everything reminded him of Loki. Eventually it became painful again. The biting uncertainty, how to label their relationship, how to label his feelings – and when he realized that he loved this imperfect, melodramatic dipshit of a supposed God … How to tell him?


	2. Baby? What? Baby!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony wants a baby from Loki. But, as with everything, Tony is rather rash and didn't quite think it through. So for once Loki is the reasonable one in the relationship.

“I want a baby from you.”

Loki startled, spit out his tea and started coughing helplessly, unable to hide the panic and confusion on his face. Tony sighed and picked the delicate porcelain cup from the God’s fingers to set it down on the counter. Out of the general direction of the Romanoff-Barton-aggregate (whenever Loki was in the same room as them they were practically glued to each other) came a discrete harrumph, but Tony just ignored the ‘assembled’ Avengers in his kitchen.

“What?” Loki managed to croak after a few more minutes of weak wheezing. There was tea dripping from his chin and staining his plain black shirt. It was distracting; Tony was tempted to lick it off, but refrained from it. Instead he ignored the nervous fluttering in his stomach and continued: “That was me telling you that … well, it’s been almost two years since you kinda-sorta broke through my roof and managed to sneak very, very close to me.” When still nothing came from Loki, he cleared his throat. “Okay, the thing is, I have no idea what you expect from this,” he made a quick hand motion between himself and the stunned God, “but I … want more? It’s stupid, I never did relationships before, I mean, even Pepper lost her shit with me. But we work, you know, and … Fuck, we never said the L-word, but goddammit if this isn’t be saying the L-word, by not saying it.”

“L-word?” Loki rasped, still blinking as if in shock. Tony sighed again.

“I love you, you stupid shit.”

The following silence was worth at least a few chirping crickets, Tony thought. Or maybe a fake chorus of sitcom laughter.

“Alright, Avengers disassemble,” he groaned, clapping his hands. “I’d like some privacy, Loki and I are having a Moment.”

Barton and Romanoff were the first to slip out of the kitchen, Banner cautiously following them. Rogers meanwhile orchestrated their strategic retreat. (Thor wasn’t present, due to his princely duties in the Nine Realms. Tony liked it, because Loki liked it. Having Thor and Loki around at the same time was like having someone rub a rubber balloon on your head all the time, only with nerves instead of hair.)

“A baby,” Loki finally said, when everyone had left. His face could have been carved out of marble.

“Yeah.” Tony licked his lips – they always dried up whenever he was nervous, which fortunately wasn’t that often.

“Anthony, I am not sure I understand what …” Loki trailed off uncertainly.

“What I was thinking?”

“Well, yes.”

They stared at each other for a few moments, both stiff and vulnerable. So far their relationship hadn’t entailed much more than awesome sex, cuddling under the covers and bickering over trifles – which, yes, qualified as a proper relationship, but they never called it one; they never called each other boyfriends either. It had been safe, ignoring the big, looming questions and statements, the definitiveness – and Tony started to regret bursting out with his complicated feelings like that.

“Okay, you know what, just forget what I said,” he said and threw his hands in the air, turning to leave the kitchen. “I won’t mention it again, it’s cool.”

But Loki had freakishly long legs, so perhaps he shouldn’t be too surprised when cold feet bracketed his hips and pulled him back towards where the alien God was perched upon a barstool.

“Come here, little mortal,” Loki purred and wrapped his arms and legs around Tony. His nose nuzzled Tony’s neck, causing him to shiver, but not from the cold touch of his skin. Damned God of Mischief, he was sure to remember his weak points. He only gave a low grumble in response.

“Where does this sudden desire come from?” Loki asked after a few moments, cool breath puffing against Tony’s sensitive skin.

“I love you,” he repeated, much more timidly this time, and tried to burrow himself into Loki’s body.

“Oh, Anthony.” A quick kiss to the nape of his neck. “I might just love you too.”

“Sooo …” He turned in the circle of Loki’s arms. “About the baby-thing …”

“I might have to give it some thought first.”

“Okay.”

“Though …” He trailed off again.

“Though what?” Tony asked and rested his cheek against Loki’s.

“You are aware that I already have children.”

“Um, yeah?” Okay, dry lips again. Keep it cool. Breathe. “Does that mean …?”

“The way you stated your wish,” Loki continued without acknowledging Tony’s hesitant question, “it suggests that you want to carry the child. If you are familiar with my past, you will know that I carried three of my children myself. It wouldn’t be a problem to do it again, though I’d have to warn you: there is no guarantee for it being humanoid, should I carry it.”

“So … Sleipnir?” Tony giggled a bit breathlessly.

“Yes, him. And Jörmungandr and Fenrir,” he added.

“A horse with eight legs, a giant snake and a giant wolf.”

“Dragon.”

“What?”

“Jörmungandr is a water dragon, not a snake,” Loki rectified gently.

“Uh, ‘kay … And your … other kids?”

“Vali and Narvi are the offspring from my marriage with Sigyn. They died, when …” Loki trailed off, muscles taut and trembling under Tony’s hands. He hushed him gently and wrapped his arms tightly around his God’s waist, keeping him secure and grounded. Loki took a deep breath and continued: “At last there is Hel, my daughter from my union with Angrboða. She is now Queen of Helheim.”

“Does that mean …? No, wait, what does that mean? Is this you telling me ‘damn, Tony, I’ve got enough brats already’, or are you telling me ‘look at my awesome kids, I want more’?” Tony lifted his head from where it was buried above Loki’s collarbone and looked at him. “I mean, I would totally understand if you didn’t want kids with me. Oh God, crap, forget the plural there. Considering, you know … I don’t know, actually. It was just a thought. And you know me, sometimes thoughts spill uncontrolledly out of my mouth.”

Loki nodded, maybe thoughtful, maybe just indulgent. One never knew with him. But it looked a tiny bit amused, so it was okay.

“We cool?” Tony asked and placed a quick kiss to the left corner of his lover’s mouth, which quirked upward at the gesture.

“We cool,” Loki said gently.

._-°-_.

They were lying in bed together, but since it didn’t look like sexy times tonight (well done, Tony, you could have considered that there isn’t a bigger cockblocker than baby-talk), Tony was wearing thin pajama trousers and a shirt. Loki, with his lower body temperature that originated in his Jotun heritage, always snuggled up against Tony, who served as his private little oven. Damned icy toes poking into his calves.

Since he couldn’t immediately sleep, he started thinking. Usually, that was good and lead to better suit schematics, this or that improvement on the arc-reactor or some idea for a new toy he could toss at the market. But tonight his thoughts circled around Loki’s kids, his previous marriage with Sigyn (even though Loki had assured him there were no feelings between him and the woman any more, it was still weird) and what he now had with him. The longer he thought about it, the more he felt like a tryst, not even a mistress. He wasn’t important in Loki’s life. Barely a flyspeck on his timeline.

And then he started thinking about immortality. Okay, yes, even Jotun and Æsir could die of something like old age, but not before a couple thousand years or so, maybe even more with magic involved and all that. But he was limited to about a century, maybe only little more due to his X-gene; but what of a possible child? Would it live as long as Loki? How did immortals age? Would Tony even get to see it grow into an adult? Or would it be mortal? Would he do that to Loki, leaving him to mourn not only Tony’s but also their possible offspring’s (un-)natural death? Well, provided the God _were_ even to mourn him/them, which- …

“You are thinking too much,” Loki’s sleepy voice sounded from behind him and a long, heavy arm wrapped itself around Tony’s waist. He had to forcibly keep himself from shifting then, because an arm felt so much more comfortable when it was nudged over a softer, curved female waist, as he had found out during his time with Loki.

“Tony,” he pressed, sounding much more awake this time, “I know you are afraid- …”

“ _I_ am afraid?” he exclaimed and wriggled until he was lying on his other side. “God dammit, Loki, I was the one who started talking about babies. Now who’s the chicken?”

Loki opened one eye halfway to shoot him a glare, but the effect was diminished by his puffy hair sticking up from his head and the way his cheek squashed against his pillow. Tony grinned and snuggled against his lover, bringing their close enough that the tips of their noses almost touched.

“I _meant_ ,” Loki groaned and stretched his back in an attempt to rouse himself, “that I know you are insecure about us. You and me. Considering me having tried to take over your world; considering you are considered a hero, while I’m a villain.”

“Super-hero and super-villain,” Tony corrected with a grin and Loki huffed a small laugh.

“Considering how distrustful your friends are of me, even though they tolerate me for now,” he continued. “You might question your affections for me, and I understand that. Sometimes I wonder, too, if your company is worth all the pain and misery it seems to attract. I came to the conclusion that it is, but you might decide otherwise. I know the fickle minds of mortals.”

“Honey, a few hours ago I asked you to impregnate me – what do you think to what conclusion I came?”

They looked at each other in the dark, only illuminated by the dim glow of the city below them, and shared mixed expressions of hope, gentleness, insecurity and affection.

“You know …” Tony licked his dry lips and lowered his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “Actually my outburst wasn’t as spontaneous as I wanted everyone to think. I talked to Charles a few weeks back- …”

“Charles Xavier?” Loki cut in, surprised.

“Yeah. We talked about … you know … the theoretical pros and cons to a pregnancy. What kind of shifts I would have to perform, in order to make it possible and healthy. Looks like a womb and some hormone-levels are all I need to do. And he said he would help me with PR. Could help with public opinion on mutants in general.” He paused, watching Loki’s expression go softer and softer.

“You really want this,” the God murmured, the beginnings of a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

“I do.”

“Well … Who am I to tell my extravagant mortal boyfriend what he can and can’t have?” Loki purred and kissed him in a way that made his brain go bananas. Which was why it took him several hours to realize that Loki had called him his boyfriend. Though once he _did_ realize, he was sure to show his boyfriend just how much he appreciated his love by showing him how exactly they were going to make a baby.

._-°-_.

It was the first Friday of the month, with meant girl’s night. Darcy, Jane, Pepper, Natasha, and yes, Tony and Loki too. Perks of being a gendershifting mutant yourself, while having a shapeshifting boyfriend aka sometimes girlfriend. (Only downside: they’d never done the nasty while they were both in their girl-forms so far. One reason for that being that Tony was really – like _reeeaally_ – intimidated by lady Loki’s pair of melons. Curves in general. Man, Tony was way too flat to compete with a sex bomb like the Norse equivalent of the goddess Aphrodite. Geez.)

“Everyone got their Ben & Jerry’s?” Pepper asked, while Darcy, Jane and Loki were going through a list of possible rom-coms to watch.

“Yup,” Tony confirmed. “But where’s my wild strawberry liqueur? I need something disgustingly sweet to my Strawberry Cheesecake.”

“I don’t know,” came Loki’s voice from somewhere among the pillow castle she and Darcy had built. “But I’ve got some Cointreau instead. Fancy some?”

“Gimme, darling.”

“Ah-ah,” Natasha suddenly shouted and knocked the glass right out of Tony’s hand. “Are you stupid? You two are trying to have a baby and you still drink alcohol? What kind of parents do you want to be, huh?”

Embarrassed, shocked silence from Tony and an offended, shocked glare from Loki.

“What does alcohol have to do with her fertility?” Loki asked.

“Okay, stop, stop, timeout!” Pepper held out her hands. “Tony, I’m disappointed. I thought you were a genius. Did you seriously not talk about this at all?”

“Oh my god …” Tony hid her face in her hands, though she felt herself shifting into her male body again – it always happened with stress, exhaustion or anger, and they’d called it jokingly her Hulk-mode. But this wasn’t funny at all. He felt guilty and shocked, and if the tears and his pale complexion stunned even Darcy into silence, it must be really bad indeed. “I shouldn’t … I knew it, I never … I’m not …”

He saw Loki crawling towards him over the pile of cushions and the sofa, but he couldn’t talk right now, he couldn’t explain. It wasn’t Loki’s fault, she couldn’t have known. Gods were more resilient, so their pregnancies were probably less precarious too.

“Tony?” she asked. “I do not understand.”

“I’m a complete fuckup.” He couldn’t keep the dry sob from escaping. “I’m sorry, Loki, but we can’t have a baby … I’m too stupid, I can’t do it. I’d ruin everything with my irresponsibility.”

“That is not true. You save lives every day, and look at Dum-E, Butterfingers, U and J.A.R.V.I.S., they are your children too. You have taken good care of them.”

“Yeah, but they don’t need their diapers changed or regular, healthy meals; they don’t look up to me as their role model and they don’t _need_ me like a baby would.” Tony rubbed his eyes and released a sigh. “I’d be a terrible parent.”

“Do not insult me!” Loki hissed, turning male again as well. He stood, regal as a black panther, and with less than a blink he transformed his casual clothes into his royal armor, green eyes flashing with the power of his magic. “I am a God, I am Loki Friggasson, God of Mischief, Chaos, Deceit and Fire, and I have seen your worth. I know your thoughts and your past, your feelings and your weaknesses. I know that you are the most human of all your race for your ability to adapt and change, to _grow_ into something greater than before. I have seen your worth, and I deem you worthy of being my partner, my other half, and mother of my child.”

Stunned, Tony stared at the beautiful being in front of him, once more reminded of Loki’s otherworldliness, age and wisdom.

“If I fail,” Tony whispered, smiling at the frown appearing on his God’s forehead, because this was why they loved each other. They were flying when they should be falling, because each was raising the other higher into the air. “And if I fail, you will always be there to tell me that I am incapable of failure.”

And Loki smiled as well.


	3. Put a Ring on It

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Intergalactic marriage doesn’t sound too complicated, does it? Well, if it involves Asgardian royalty, SHIELD, Loki and a newly pregnant Tony Stark, it is.

Walk down the aisle, Rhodey on his arm, take Loki’s hands, look him in the eyes, and wait for the damn priest to finish his speech, say the vows, put on the ring, kiss.

It sounded easy if you put it that way.

Of course, nothing could truly be easy, not with Tony, Loki, the Avengers and a bunch of wannabe-Gods in Far Far Away. (In which Tony was the green, huge Ogre, apparently.) Not with a gendershifting genius billionaire philanthropist hero marrying a shapeshifting God of Sass and Sexy Asses while pregnant with said almost-deity’s demigod baby. Hormones alone were fucked up factor these days. One second Tony would cry in his fully male form and then scream at whoever was unlucky enough to be in his vicinity while flickering between genderless, female and male.

Thor looked so happy about the whole business it was like eating one of those disgustingly sweet marzipan-filled chocolate bugs. It was disgustingly sweet. Though it got even worse after he announced his engagement to the ‘fair Lady Jane’. Loki actually made retching noises at the prospect of having to be the Æsir equivalent of a godfather to the undoubtedly resulting offspring.

“Children of my own are the treasures of my heart – but someone else’s brats?” he’d said, barely containing another gagging sound.

Steve and Bruce were mostly happy too, but in a quieter, more containable manner. Congratulations, smiles, warm handshakes. A choreographed, well-rehearsed toast at the bachelor party. Such things. Those were nice.

Natasha was pretty much unreadable, but she seemed to be as relaxed as she would ever be. With her was Clint, bubbly, flimsy Clint, bragging at the reception to Gods of Harvest and Goddesses of Beauty about how he’d been one of the factors leading to Tony’s and Loki’s relationship, so they should damn well thank him for the impending birth of the royal prince or princess, who would be third in line to the throne of Asgard until Thor and Jane had babies. Well, at least now he looked at the whole mind-control business in a positive way.

Loki had gotten cold feet (literally) the instant they arrived on Asgard and locked himself and Tony up inside his royal quarters until there was no choice but to leave them (which was an hour before the wedding ceremony; at least Tony could definitely scratch ‘sex-marathon on another planet’ off his bucket list). His face had been unreadable when Tony (in his fully female form) emerged from their room, dressed in Loki’s colors: a forest green tunic, a black skirt and golden ornaments around his neck, wrists and ankles. The small curve of her belly was emphasized by golden embroidery in the form of an intricately winded snake. It still wasn’t overly visible, but it would be hard to excuse it as a fat reserve or something at this stage.

“You don’t like it,” she said and pouted, when he didn’t say anything. He himself looked gorgeous of course, wearing his full battle armor, horny helmet and all. And all of it was soon going to belong to her. Just imagining peeling him out of the thing made Tony almost melt. (Bad Tony. Down.)

“There is one more thing,” Loki murmured and stepped up to her, framing her face with his hands. Tony looked blinkingly up to him.

“What?”

“This.”

Suddenly he was all over her, cool lips molded to her warm ones, the sharp edges of his armor digging into her flesh where she’d thrown her arms around him. With a deep sigh he stepped back and looked at her.

“There,” he brushed his thumbs over her cheeks. “Now you are the most beautiful bride the Nine Realms have ever seen.”

Speechless, Tony could only laugh when he kneeled in front of her and pressed a loving kiss to her belly.

“You are a lucky one, little treasure,” he stage-whispered, and Tony laughed again.

“He or she doesn’t understand you yet, silly.”

“Are you sure? I think you know what I mean, don’t you, little one?”

“Stop it, we are going to be late for our own wedding. Up! On your feet, come on. I want to get married now!”

After a lot of begging on Tony’s and cursing on Loki’s side they had gotten Odin and Frigga to agree on a more private wedding ceremony than what they would have had in mind. (They wanted to invite half of Asgard’s population plus uncountable representatives of the Nine Realms, and hold a feast that would go on for a fortnight. And while Tony was a pompous human being, and Loki liked to show off – that was simply too much. This was personal, so it should be kept personal.)

So when Tony gave Rhodey her arm and he led her into the room chosen by Frigga, only the Avengers, Pepper, Happy, Odin, Frigga, Loki and the priest waited on the other side of the oblong shaped marble hall. There was no music playing, and no one spoke, giving the situation the air of gravity one would expect from a moment that would from now on change the lives of so many people. Tony unconsciously placed a hand on her belly and smiled at Loki, who was looking at her like she was the rising sun after millennia of darkness. When Rhodey released her, he took her hands in his as if they were delicate things.

“From today on the fates of Loki of Jötunheim, son of Frigga, and Tony Stark of Midgard, child of Howard, will be joined forever. May the Norns bless their union, and guide their paths.”

The priest droned on for a while, but Tony had learned to ignore rambling people very early on in her life. It wasn’t important what this alien wannabe-God was saying. The only important thing was the sincerity and the love she saw in Loki’s eyes, and the promises they were making to each other by completing this ceremony. Those promises had already been made, some actually spoken out loud, others not. This was just the icing on the cake.

Tony barely registered agreeing to the priest’s questions, transfixed by her partner, her lover, the father of her child. And, as of this kiss, her husband. God, this was cheesy. But what could be cheesier than a marriage in Fairy Land? Tony was allowed to be kitschy.

Dinner was an unusually quiet affair. Everyone behaved marvelously, and when Steve produced a home-baked cake after granny’s (Steve’s) recipe from somewhere, Tony almost broke into tears.

How did she deserve friends like this? A man out of his time, a woman with blood on her hands, her bird savior, an angel with red hair, a man as happy as his name, a man with two faces, a true friend, a god of thunder and loud laughter … a husband and a child?

Loki simply kissed her temple and excused them. Clint of course wolf whistled after them, but apart from that nobody commented.

“Are you alright?” Loki asked, as soon as he closed the door to their rooms behind them, worry and gentle affection on his face. Tony undid the laces of her dress and shifted into her half-male form, which only left his middle section female, before opening his arms wide and encircling his husband with them.

“Yes. Yes, I’m alright.”


	4. Duck, Duck, Whale

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I don’t waddle.” Tony is going to give birth soon, his cravings are ridiculous, and Loki is cranky in his stead.

“Whoa,” Pepper said, balancing folders of paper, a plate with cake and two mugs of tea. “What’s gotten into Loki?”

Said Norse deity was currently stretched out on top of a completely dignified Tony, but that was not what worried Pepper, since that was pretty much the norm ever since Tony started to show – and that was months ago. (Bruce had already expressed concerns about Loki’s not insubstantial weight – almost triple that of a normal human male – that could somehow harm the baby and Tony when he was just lying on top of them. Tony simply waved and said there was “some weird Voodoo shit, don’t ask me, but it’s worked so far during sex.” No one asked since.) No, Pepper was more concerned about the blue-ish, not quite fully Jötunn yet tinge of Loki’s skin and his massive scowl. He looked like he might hiss and growl soon.

“He’s upset,” Tony explained matter-of-factly from somewhere under Loki’s shoulder.

“I can see that.” Pepper gingerly set down the cake and tea, before ruffling through the paper in her hands. “Tony, there’s stuff you need to sign. There’s also lots of gossip about the fact that no one has seen Iron Man in months. You wanna see?”

“No, thanks.”

“So.” She sighed and played with a pen she produced from somewhere. “Loki, I need Tony’s hands fully functional to sign these papers. Can you manage to let him go for long enough, so he can do his job?”

Loki only bared his teeth and growled.

“Sorry,” Tony apologized. “He’s being all possessive and shit.”

“Oh. And why now?”

“Dunno.” Loki got lifted up, when Tony did a shrugging motion, which caused him to scramble and press himself even tighter against the body under him.

A few moments passed, during which Pepper pointedly sipped her tea.

“Hey, Lo, I need to pee.” Tony’s hand appeared and poked the god into his ribs. The next moment they were gone.

“Goddamned sorcerer,” Pepper cursed and took a large bite of the chocolate cake.

._-°-_.

Tony was sitting on the terrace of the Avengers Tower, absentmindedly stroking her belly. She had to be in her fully female form for the last two months of the pregnancy, since there was obviously no way she could give birth in her male form, so she tried to get accustomed to herself after years spent as a man. It was a good thing she couldn’t vanish her womb even if she forgot to keep it when emergency-shifting into her male form, because Loki somehow fixed it around the baby’s presence. But, new as it was to her, she found that people were less freaked out by a pregnant woman than by a pregnant man, and her female face was far less known than her male one, so people were doubly surprised, somehow, when they announced that she was pregnant. So far the press had been kind to them though. Perhaps Loki helped along with that as well, though she sincerely hoped he hadn’t been spreading murder-threats all over the states (or more like the whole world). It would totally be his style though.

Being in her female form also had the perk that people treated her more gentlemanly (in the case of men) or more companionable (in the case of women) than if she was in her male form. On the other hand people also tended to take her less seriously now than before – like her brains had to make way for the baby or something. She was still a genius, thank you very much. Only Pepper stayed Pepper, and Loki was still Loki, though that wasn’t a bad thing. He was gentle when he had reason to be, but he didn’t coddle her either. Or, at least he didn’t used to. Whatever it was that bugged him, it had converted him into a koala or a sloth or something like that. She was only Loki-less at the moment, because she’d sent him off to fetch some pistachio-cherry-mint-orange ice cream for her. Loki was very good with ice cream – he did that thing that made it unmeltable.

“Hey, preggo!”

She turned in her seat and saw Clint leaning against the glass railing of the terrace.

“Hey, birdbrain. What’s up?”

“Nothing. Enjoying the view,” he laughed and wriggled his eyebrows.

“Creep. Hey, touch my belly, it’s awesome.”

Her baby had started to move a lot – not just kicks, but sometimes it felt like the brush of fingertips, or a knock. Clint now approached her, warily keeping watch for Loki, but once he was near enough he stretched out his hand and placed it on the curve of her belly. She giggled.

“I’m not made of glass, birdy. Come on, _touch_.”

“Seriously, Tony, that’s so weird,” he laughed, but he crouched and framed her baby bump with both hands. “Man, I can’t imagine having a child around at the Tower.”

“Oh, we probably won’t keep him or her at the Tower for at least the first year. It’s too dangerous, with all those villains attacking us all the time,” she explained. “I’m having the Malibu mansion redecorated … It’s gonna be baby-proof.”

“Okay.” He frowned and moved his hands. “I’m not feeling anything. Uh, anyway, but we’ll still have Iron Man’s backup, yes? Or, Iron Woman?”

She laughed.

“With my suits and Loki’s teleportation we’ll never be far.”

His face crunched up at the mention of Loki’s name, but she knew his dislike of Loki was only an act. The two of them still thought no one knew about their monthly sessions (or rather training sessions where Loki taught Clint how to throw knives and Clint then shot arrows at Loki), when in fact there was a whole vid-folder compiled by Natasha (with help from J.A.R.V.I.S.). Only for training purposes, of course.

“Ooh, there!” he exclaimed, when the baby gave a small kick. “Amazing.”

“Yeah, right?”

“So, why don’t you know if it’s a boy or a girl yet?”

“We decided against knowing,” she said and moved his hand to where she thought she’d felt movement before. “Apparently it’s an Asgardian superstition or whatever. Loki gave, like, an inhuman screech when the doctor showed him ultrasound pictures. It was hilarious.”

“What about baby names?”

“We already chose names. Two for each sex: one from Earth and one from Asgard.”

“Cmon, tell me!” Clint did his pouty face.

Suddenly, there was a low growl behind them, and Clint hastily pulled back his hands.

“Hey babe, did you get my ice cream?” Tony piped up.

Loki silently handed over a magic-cooled container and a spoon, but kept his gaze fixed on Clint, who was still crouching beside Tony’s chair.

“Yeah, I’ll just leave,” the archer murmured and slipped past Loki’s tall form.

“You shouldn’t provoke him,” Tony said around a spoon full of pistachio-cherry-mint-orange ice cream and waved the device itself at her husband and the father of her child. Speaking of which, the little one currently seemed to be in the mood of stretching his or her limbs. She frowned and rubbed her belly.

“It’s amusing though,” Loki grinned and stretched out alongside her on the lounge **,** throwing an arm over her belly. “He reminds me of your Midgardian chicken from time to time.”

Tony cackled, thrusting out her elbows like wings ** _._** Then she poked Loki in the ribs.

“So does this mean you’re not the cranky one anymore?”

“Whatever do you mean?”

“I just want to say that I’m the one with the hormones, and the excuse to ask for weird shit and do weird shit. So why have you been acting strange lately?”

“It’s nothing.” Loki captured both of her hands in one of his and held them fixed above her belly, holding the ice cream container in his other hand. “Weird instincts, I suppose.”

“Aha,” Tony said. “You’re not going to be weirder though, when the baby comes?”

“I can’t make any promises.”

Tony grinned and snuggled closer to his cool form. Secretly, she absolutely loved his possessive side. It made her feel wanted, and there was honestly nothing better than the massive ego-stroke that was a real god at her beck and call.

“Feed me that ice cream, love, will you?” she purred and leaned back.


	5. First Snow

Jimmy was excited. Mommy and daddy told him there was a big surprise for him today, and he couldn’t wait any longer. They said the surprise was outside, and even though it was very early in the morning and Jimmy hated mornings, he purposefully strode to his closet and chose his outdoor clothes. A nice warm sweater, jeans, his new parka, gloves and boots.

“Might I inquire what young Master James is doing?”

“Get dressed,” he replied haughtily and rolled his eyes. JARVIS, the invisible, smart person mommy had made before Jimmy was born, could be a bit stupid sometimes.

“I can see that,” JARVIS said gently. “It is very cold outside, though. Shall I inform Master Tony and Master Loki to accompany you?”

“They’re sleeping.” _Stupid_ , he added, silently, because daddy told him it was rude to say things like that to people. Daddy never said it was rude to just _think_ them, though.

“I will wake them. I’m sure it’s no bother.”

Jimmy harrumphed and looked at his gloved hands, which were starting to sweat, even though he hadn’t managed to get his thumbs into the appropriate holes. For some reason they stuck out in the opposite direction. Also, now his hands were too clumsy to close the zipper of his parka, and the Velcro fasteners of his boots. Ah, well. Mommy and daddy would help.

“Is auntie Pepper home?”

“Miss Pepper is currently out, Master James. She has business to attend to at the office.”

“And uncle Steve, or auntie Nat, or uncle Bruce, or- …”

“There you are, little troubleworm,” came mommy’s voice, and then a yawn. “What are you doing?”

“I want to see the surprise.”

“The- …? Oh! Right. Just hang on.” A few tugs and pulls later, and Jimmy’s gloves were on the right way, his parka zipped up and his boots tied. Mommy gave him a kiss on the forehead. “Go on ahead to the elevator, daddy and I will be there in a sec. Alright?”

“Alright.”

._-°-_.

 


End file.
